From Santiago to St. Petersburg, and from Tucumcari to Tianjin, Corbin & Company is always on the lookout for great investment ideas. Recently, I was in Ukraine uncovering some areas for investment, and visiting that country’s many amazing sites, like Saint Sophia’s Cathedral, St. Michael’s, Kharkov Square and the sandy beaches of Odessa. My travels re-enforced something we have always believed at Corbin & Company: You do not get a good feeling for a place unless you get up and go there. Nothing beats seeing it with your own eyes.

This is why our firm keeps pace with what is going on with our companies and the world: We gain insights into firms and places other investors read about only months or years later. For me, Ukraine is one of those places. To read the travel guides, you would think the country is a near-police state with police and government officials looking to “shake down” people at every turn. I found this to be so untrue it was laughable. I get shaken down more times travelling to New York City than I did for three weeks in Ukraine. While the consensus is that Ukrainians will steal you blind, if they did, I have not figured out how—and certainly they did it with a smile on their faces.

Contrary to these impressions, Ukraine’s investment opportunities are spectacular, ranging from relatively safe investments to more esoteric and risky ones. The sector that most interested me was agriculture, as Ukraine is a world-class player in the agricultural marketplace. Most people do not know that a Ukrainian company is the world’s second largest supplier of eggs, and the largest supplier of eggs in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa, producing 22 million eggs daily. Ukraine is also a major player in sunflowers, chickens, sugar beets, wheat and, increasingly, corn. Some of the finest agri-businesses in the world are based there.

Its industrial sector has many well-known and highly regarded firms, too: Motor Sich is one of the largest makers of aircraft and helicopter engines in the world, while companies like Turboatom and Electrotyazhmash are players in the generator space. As the government privatizes more state-owned companies over the next decade, this category will become better recognized by Western investors. The “FIG” sector (Financial-Industrial Groups), are companies controlled by oligarchs (rich Ukrainians) and resemble the conglomerates of old days. From a different viewpoint, however, Ukraine, except for its state-owned enterprises, is not so different from what existed in the United States in the early 20th century. Indeed, I would rate Ukraine’s investment potential just as high as that of the turn-of-the century behemoths of American industry.

One thing that everyone warns about is the lack of transparency and corporate governance in Ukraine. However, I think these factors will improve relatively quickly. Why am I optimistic? The reason is that in the future, the oligarchs will want to either sell their businesses or drastically expand them outside Ukraine. This means that if they want to get good prices or use their stock as a currency, investors will have to feel comfortable with these companies and their disclosures. This will force firms to become more investor-friendly. Currently, with many Ukrainian companies trading at rates that are four to five times earnings and boasting world-class competitive businesses, investors have the rare opportunity to benefit from low valuation, earnings growth and the long-term potential of a changing investor climate. These realities create real opportunity and are the reason we are investment management “road warriors” in the nation of Ukraine.